IT Cultural Enclaves and Social Change: The Interplay Between Indian Cultural values and Western Ways of Working in an Indian IT Organization

Globalization has been associated with opportunities for economic development through the establishment and growth of information technology (IT)-related industries in developing countries, which have been criticized, though, for offering only a skewed development trajectory, with little or no connections to the local economy. The term "export enclaves" has been used to refer to such activity. We adopt this term in another sense, that of communities that develop distinct cultural norms from those in the wider communities of which they are part, and use it as a metaphor to describe the development of "working" cultures within such export enclaves. We use a case study of an Indian IT technology firm to illustrate how these enclaved working cultures develop. The findings illustrate that there is a complex interplay between Western value systems and traditional Indian socio-cultural values which is shaping the direction of work-based values in the IT enclave discussed in the case study. The contributions to existing research illustrated by this perspective are discussed.